War Machines
by DwarfsonofDwarf
Summary: There are many guardians. Each with their own stories. But none try to rediscover their past, but what would they find if they did. Follow three guardian machines (Exos) that want to find out who they originally were.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness surrounded him. He could feel nothing and hear nothing. He could see nothing, except for his own hands. His hands and arms were made of metal. They were nearly as black as the void that surrounded him, save for a few scrapes that scratched the paint.

 _Who am I? What am I? Where am I?_ These were the questions he asked himself, but sadly could not answer.

As he was looking over his metallic body, a bright light shined down on him, parting the darkness. He heard a deep robotic voice. It spoke with authority, "Guardian? Wake up Guardian. Go towards the light."

As the guardian looked up into the light, it began to lift him upward. When he was close to the source of the light, he looked back down to the ground. To his horror, inky black arms formed from the void and was trying to pull him back towards the ground.

He quickly turned his head skyward. He was so close to the source of the light, that he could feel its warmth. He closed his eyes and let it consume him.

He does not know who he was or what that place was, but he remembers what he is. He is an Exo or a synthetic lifeform, with intelligence that is capable of rivaling the smartest of humans. That is the only thing he can remember, all other memories has been corrupted, destroyed, or just securely locked.

"Guardian?"

He opened his eyes to see a floating spherical device, surrounded by a jet black shell, talking to him. As he spoke to it, his voice had a synthetic after tone to it. "What are you?"

The little ball had a deep voice that reminded the guardian of an old grizzled veteran of some ancient war. "I am a ghost, Guardian."

"Why do you keep calling me that? What is a guardian?"

"It's what you are. You are a warrior that has been revived by the Traveler's light."

Before he had time to ask the ghost anymore questions, some large humanoid creature let out a howl. A howl that its prey was close.

The ghost spoke to the guardian with a commanding tone, "Look I know you have a lot of questions, but if you don't get moving, whatever made that howl will rip you apart."

The ghost disappeared right before his eyes. Before he could panic, it reassured him, "Don't worry, I'm still hear. You just can't see me."

The guardian realized that he was being propped up by a large bolder. He looked around him. There were dozens of alien skeletons surrounding him, almost all of them having distinct four arms. Past the carnage that surrounded him, there were several dead Exos littering the area, each one having a hoard of dead surrounding them.

Further examination of his surroundings revealed that he was in a large cave. Along with the bodies, armor pieces and guns littered the floor.

As he got up, he examined himself. He wore ancient looking armor that was worn and damaged. Large scorched holes dotted his chest piece, an entire shoulder pad was missing, and the cloak that he was wearing was ripped, and deduced to half the size it originally was.

There was a small pool of water beside him. He moved closer to it to examine himself. His metal skin matched his pure black armor. A large amount of paint was scraped off of his right eye. Red lights illuminated his eyes. As he examined himself, he saw a glint of metal in the pull and reached for it. What he pulled out of the pool was familiar to him. It was a helmet. It was his helmet.

He scraped some grime off the front of the helmet, and it revealed a singular word etched on its surface. A word he said out loud. "Grim."

He remembers now. His name was Grim. Grim dawned his old helmet, put his hood up, picked up the hand cannon that laid beside him, and began to make his way towards the cave's exit.

The cave was huge. After walking what felt like several minutes, he heard rocks falling to the ground. Grim stopped in his tracks, aware that something was watching him.

Ghost only confirmed his suspicions, "Picking something up on sensors. Several somethings."

Grim heard a loud thud, as if something organic fell to the ground. After the first thump, he heard several more. He was being surrounded.

Grim heard a slight electrical humming sound, followed by a growl, behind him. He sidestepped and turned. An outline of a four armed creature passed him, missing him with what seemed like the outline of swords.

He leveled his gun at the head of the creature and pulled the trigger. The creatures head exploded in a spectacular fashion. A white substance sprayed out of the newly formed hole and slowly died down as the creature fell to the ground.

The outline flickered and began to reveal the true nature of the creature.

Ghost yelled out, "Fallen all around us!"

Grim noticed more outlines surrounding him. They all began to flicker, to reveal several Fallen carrying energy cutlasses. Leading the pack was a Fallen captain. It yelled out alien words and pointed his cutlass at Grim.

Several Fallen vandals began to surround Grim. Each one of their four arms were holding an energy cutlass. They chattered amongst themselves in their alien language as they encircled Grim.

Grim exhaled a breath that he didn't know he was holding in and waited. He heard an attacker behind him and quickly elbowed him in the ribs. The aliens head rested on Grim's shoulder and in front of his leveled hand cannon.

 _Two._

Another attacker on his left charged him. Grim pulled a holstered knife out from under his shoulder pad and parried the vandal with it. He aimed his weapon at the vandal's exposed chest and unloaded the rest of the clip.

 _Three._

Another vandal on his right began to prepare an attack. Grim swing his hand cannon and struck the vandal on the side of its face, and buried his knife in between the Fallen's ribs.

 _Four._

More vandals appeared behind the captain. He held up one hand, and they began to slowly back away. The captain stepped forward to face Grim, but he didn't attack. The captain pointed at Grim's gun with one of his cutlasses. Grim understood and holstered his gun and pulled out another holstered knife that was on his chest.

There was a long pause, then suddenly the captain leaped at Grim. He parried one of the Fallen's swords, but one of them left a deep gash on his shoulder. He threw one of his knives at the captain's shoulder. It buried itself deep in the alien's flesh, causing the captain to drop one of his swords. Grim used this opportunity to charge the Fallen captain.

Grim leaped into the air and released a burst of energy to give him the extra boost he needed to close the distance. He swung and embedded his knife deep into the captain's head. It let out a roar of pain and collapsed to the ground.

The vandals that were watching the match began to slowly back away. One by one they activated their cloaking devices and began to disappear into the darkness of the cave.

Ghost spoke excitedly, "I count five kill."

Grim was surprised, "You were keeping count too?"

"It passes the time. Quickly, the entrance should be up ahead. Get moving before more show."

It did not take Grim long to find the cave's entrance. He stood at the mouth of the cave, which was positioned on the side of a cliff. The cliff overlooked a large rainforest.

"Where am I," Grim asked.

"The jungles of Venus. Make your way down the cliff. I need to find you a ship."


	2. Chapter 2

Grim landed on the ground with a loud thud. A rusty looking space faring vessel passed over him. He thought the ship looked like some kind of fish made out of scrap metal.

Ghost spoke up, "I found you a ship."

"Good, where is it?"

"It's located in a Fallen stronghold."

"Point me in the direction."

A small white dot appeared in Grim's helmet which gave the estimated distance of the ship.

After several hours of walking, Grim found himself in the center of an ancient city. There were many abandoned vehicles, old corpses, and buildings reclaimed by nature.

"What's your name Ghost?"

"Hm, name?"

"Yes, what is your name?"

"My name is Ghost."

"What kind of name is Ghost?"

"What do you want to call me by then?"

"How about Boss. You kind of remind me of an old war veteran."

"Boss? Boss. Boss! I like it."

"Good, so Boss, where are we on Venus exactly?"

"One of the many destroyed cities."

"What happened?"

"The Darkness. It claimed everything it touched. What survived its onslaught soon fell to the alien's that followed it."

Grim cut through a building that was once a holdout for a squad. They did not survive, but thankfully there ammo and weapons did. Grim scavenged what he could, finding an old sniper rifle that somehow worked and an outdated rocket launcher. As he made his way through the building, he picked something up on the motion tracker. As quickly as it showed up, it disappeared.

"Boss, what was that?"

"What was what?"

"Nothing."

Grim made his way out of the building. He was in the middle of a destroyed street when the motion tracker went crazy. It was saying that targets were surrounding him, but there was nothing in sight.

"Boss, what's going on?!"

"Quickly, find cover!"

Grim followed the advice, and dove into a large crater in the street. Grim heard something that sounded like static electricity. He peeked over his hidey hole and saw a humanoid robot. The creature did not look like him. He was made to look more human than machine, but this creature was clearly more machine than human.

The creature had a sleek appearance. Its entire body was a dull golden color. Its legs were doubled jointed, a bright white object rested in its chest, and its head was flat and long. It held a weapon to its side. The weapon was slender and had the same color as the machine. Several bright red lights pulsed and hummed inside the weapon.

The machine made several high pitch screeches and more of them materialized out of thin air. The machine leading the pack slowly turned its head towards the crater. Its bright red, singular eye dilated.

Grim quickly ducked back into the crater. He heard the static sound again and peered over the crater once more. To his surprise, the machines were gone.

"Boss, what were those things?"

"Vex, ancient war machines. We should keep moving. The stronghold is very close now."

After a few more hours of walking, Grim was staring down on the Fallen stronghold through his newly acquired sniper rifle. The stronghold was a skyscraper that was surrounded by walls built out of scrounged up metal. There were Fallen everywhere.

Grim spoke to Boss, "I don't see any weak points."

"I do. You see those large beams of light?"

Grim focused his scope on a large beam of light that was inside the stronghold.

Grim questioned Boss, "Ya, what are they?"

"They are Vex data streams. The Fallen usually don't mess with Vex technology because doing so usually invites the machines."

Grim smiled beneath his helmet, "So, disturb the tech and invite some unwelcomed guests." He chuckled, "I like the way you think."

Grim's motion tracker began to light up red. He heard that terrifying static sound. Loud robotic screeching started up behind him. Grim quickly ducked, dodging several red bolts of light. He pulled the trigger on his sniper and hit the white light positioned in the machine's chest. The machine exploded sending metal parts and white fluid everywhere.

Grim saw small storm clouds form inside the room, he was in, each one creating that static sound. Out of the clouds, dozens of Vex materialized. Grim thought fast and shot the data stream that he was eyeing a moment ago.

The angry machines stop dead in their tracks. One of them gave a loud screech, and they began to disappear one by one in a cloud of smoke and lightning.

Grim quickly pulled out his knife and buried it deep into one of the closer machines before it disappeared. A storm cloud began to form around him. He saw his very atoms begin to disappear. In only a moment, he saw what he could only describe as space, an ocean of blue space.

Grim rematerialized in the middle of a sea of Vex, they were slaughtering the Fallen defense force. Grim quickly hid behind the machine that he hitched a ride with. Amongst the chaos, with his metal shield, he slowly made his way towards the entrance of the skyscraper.

When Grim and Boss were safely out of the cross-fire, Boss spoke to Grim, "Let's not do that again."

Grim shook his head, "Agreed. Where's the ship located?"

Boss appeared beside Grim and looked straight up, "On the roof. You better get to climbing."

Grim sighed and made his way towards the stairs.

Panting heavily, Grim braced himself against a wall. Boss reappeared beside him again, "You're a machine. How are you out of breath?"

Grim held up a finger, "J-just gi-give me a minute."

"Come on. This is the final floor."

Grim broke down the door leading to the roof. He saw one of those fish looking ships picking up several Fallen and taking off. There were three smaller space faring vessels. They were compact looking made with the same half-hazard design as the bigger ship, but unlike the bigger ship, these ships were painted. The main ship was painted a dark blue color while the two on either side of it were a lighter blue.

There was a Fallen captain in each ship. One of them spotted grim and gave a loud howl. They jumped out of their ships and slowly made their way towards him. Two of the captains looked like the one he killed in the cave. They huddled close together, obscuring the main captain. They parted, revealing the main captain that was slightly taller than the first two. He was covered head to toe with Vex parts, which he used as armor pieces as well as trophies. His two lower arms were replaced with Vex arms.

The bigger captain pointed at Grim and gave a low growl. The other two captains pulled out an energy cutlass and a small pistol that had electricity pulsating at the end of the barrel.

Grim pulled out his hand cannon and shot at the two captains. His bullets were deflected by a blue energy shield that surrounded them. They laughed in their alien language and charged him. Grim rolled under there swings but was quickly struck in the chest with balls of electricty.

Grim shot one of the captains and ran towards the other captain. The angry captain that he shot, swung its sword and struck the Fallen captain that Grim was standing in front of. The Fallen, who was struck by the cutlass, had his energy shield overload due to the cutlass's energy.

Grim appeared beside the stunned captain and knocked the alien's pistol out of its hand. Grim caught the pistol and shot the other Fallen with an overcharged shot. The captain stepped back grabbing his face in pain. Grim leveled his hand cannon and shot both captains in the head, streams of white light escaping the fresh bodies.

Grim threw down the overheated Fallen pistol and reloaded his hand cannon. The main Fallen captain gave a loud yell and pulled out two rifle sized weapons that had small flames lit on the end of their barrels.

Grim fired a few rounds at the captain, but the bullets were again deflected by an energy shield. This shield, unlike the first two, was an orange color. The captain laughed and fired upon Grim.

The guns fired explosive ammunition which destroyed everything they touched. Firing upon the Fallen, Grim sprinted around the captain. When his pistol started to click, Grim jumped onto one of the ships and into the air, pulling out his rocket launcher as he did so.

Grim fired the rocket at the captain. It hit the ground in front of the Fallen. Grim landed and looked up at the cloud of dust. Laughing, the captain slowly walked out of the cloud.

The alien fired his rifles. The rockets hit Grim square in the chest, shredding his breastplate. Grim was on his last legs, and he knew it. He looked at his hand cannon that he was clenching tightly. Something was taking over, he could feel it. It was the will to live. He clenched his gun tighter, his arm began to glow as bright as the sun, and his pistol began to be engulfed in flame.

He fired a single shot at the captain. The bullet was engulfed in fire and struck the captain. The captain's shield collapsed with the first shot. Grim fired another shot. It struck the captain in the shoulder, causing him to collapse. Grim casually walked towards the kneeling captain and pressed the barrel of his burning hand cannon to the Fallen's head. The captain gave a low guttural growl, and Grim fired, turning the captain into burning dust.

His burning arm, along with the strange feeling, died down. Boss quickly spoke up, "You better get to a ship quickly. I'm reading a lot of Vex signatures."

Grim hurriedly jumped into the main Fallen captain's ship. As the cockpit hatch was closing, Grim turned and saw Vex materializing onto the roof. They were reading their guns. The engines warmed up, and they were exiting Venus' atmosphere.

After exiting the atmosphere, the ship increased in speed faster and faster until they were in hyper space.

Boss spoke to Grim, "We're lucky this ship had a slip space drive. These things are rare, and Fallen usually don't install smaller ships with them."

Grim grunted, "Where exactly are we heading?"

"The Last City on Earth."

After that statement, they exited hyper space on the outer rim of Earth.


End file.
